After another last minute victory against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the Oakland Raiders (9-2) are getting a reputation as a must watch team this season.
Long-time NFL writer Peter King of Sports Illustrated joined Fitz and Brooks on Wednesday afternoon, and agreed with that sentiment.
“The Oakland Raiders right now, are the most fun team in football to watch,” King said. “First of all they’ve got Daryle Lamonica Jr. at quarterback – it’s bombs away. They’ve got an incredibly fun, opportunistic defensive front. I just think this is a really interesting team to watch, in part because they are so young. We just don’t know how good they are going to be. It’s all out in front of them right now.”
King is of course referring to Oakland star quarterback Derek Carr, who strengthened his MVP case this weekend after returning from a gruesome dislocated finger on his throwing hand, to lead the Raiders’ fourth quarter comeback. Carr has thrown 22 touchdowns to five interceptions while posting a quarterback rating of 100.5 this season.
King says the Raiders tough schedule has made their surprising success even more impressive.
“If you originally look at their schedule, it doesn’t seem that bad,” King began. “But if you really take a closer look at it, you open with three of four on the road, you close with three of four on the road. One of your toughest out of division games is against Houston…and you’ve got to play that game at 78000 feet, in a foreign country. Not only are three of the last four on the road, those are all of your division games.”
Oakland sits in first place in the highly competitive AFC West, one game ahead of the Denver Broncos (8-3) and two games ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs (7-4). The Raiders will face both teams once more this season, both times on the road.
Listen to the full interview below.